I'll try to answer as many of the questions as I can from the original post - however there seem to be several themes - smuggling, managing supercruise and rules. For the first, I think a good starting point is the following post / guide to smuggling:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=219423
First off I am doing the Han Solo smuggling thing like many players and would expect that such a profile would be welcome in the game but I have experienced just the opposite. Frontier has done so much to discourage smuggling and make it non-profitable for all but the oldest most experienced players who already have all the money, rank, and large, expensive ships and do not seem to realize that us beginners need a way to earn a million credits an hour. I have heard the older players say that smuggling should be saved for the best of the best and that newbies need not apply but the way I see it is that this is a GAME and that even if I do not have all the skills of Han Solo in real life I play a game so that I can feel like I am that good. Not asking for easy you understand but at least not impossible. All of the high paying smuggling jobs have disappeared or been re-assigned to higher levels of player with much bigger ships. Also I can drive around the galaxy for days without getting scanned or interdicted at all until I pick up an illicit cargo, then I get scanned on the way out the door, again in the next uninhabited system that I jump to on the way to delivery and again in the delivery system itself. This happens all the time. Do you set scan probabilities for ships carrying illicit cargo differently than for ships on normal runs?
If you are on a specific smuggling mission then yes, every time you jump to a new system there is a percentage chance that one of the following will jump in very soon after you: a authority vessel who will try to interdict and scan you, a pirate who will try to kill you for your cargo or a NPC (non-player character) who will try to pursade you dump the cargo or take it somewhere else. If one of these happens there will be a specific communication associated, something like "possible smuggling vehicle identified, approaching to scan" for the authority, or "the rumours are true, I'm glad I got to you before anyone else" from a pirate. It seems the more missions you take at once the more things will try to stop you.
Do I get a galaxy-wide reputation as a smuggler if I am caught to often and does that affect the amount of random scans a player receives?Also should be able to tell where the scans are originating from. Do scans from only government sources ruin a mission or do random scans from PC's and NPC's also ruin missions?
There was mention early on that there were stats behind the scenes, and that everything from the condition and make of your ship, your reputation with the faction and your reputation as a smuggler would affect NPCs dealings with you. Any cargo scan will cause a mission to fail if it is a mission that states in its description 'scanning causes this mission to fail', not sure if PC scans count.
If these smuggling missions are so secret the why are there always NPC's who are trying to find, talk to, track down, or offer me a new deal? Who tells these people? Are they telling the authorities as well? Narcs?
The smuggling missions aren't so secret, who know how many people have been approached and declined the mission before you. Did they tell anyone? Are any undercover cops working the same bulletin boards? Who knows what technology there is for tracing communications within society by the time of Elite? Anyway gameplay would be dull without some interaction along the way
And why do you expect that a smuggler would take a mission to deliver a load to a location that is not on the map because it has not been explored as of yet? Does not the client have a map that will tell you that the destination is 150,000 ls out? Why would you think I will smuggle blind?
The first point is annoying. You'd think that a contact could fill you in on the destination. I guess the other side of it is that if you ordered a taxi then you'd expect the driver to know the destination. The client may expect that the smuggler would only take a mission if they know the area and therefore how to smuggle the goods past the authorities. This is all a roleplaying excuse though really - I've taken missions to unmapped stations only to find the location is 100k ls+ away from the entry. At the very least it would be helpful if they told us on the screen the distance of the station/outpost/planet from the entry point as well as the distance the system is from your current location.
Same thing goes for these missions that make you carry around a cargo for an unspecified length of time until someone informs me where to deliver it?
These annoy me too, I tend to not acccept these missions, nor the multi-leg missions as I never know the distances or requirements will be.
And while we are at it what is wrong with the nav package? Nothing is consistent anymore, sometimes even to nearby systems I can lock on a destination and when I jump there the lock might still be there or it might be gone. Lock used to work all the time. When smuggling seconds count, I need to be sure that my nav locked destination has not disappeared on my arrival at the system. I do not have time to search for my destination again that just gives the authorities time to nail me. And in-system we used to be able to unlock a nav lock momentarily to go around something and then the lock would automatically revert to the original lock but now that no longer works. Next there is the burning up near stars problem that has started.
In the controls menu, bind a key to "Target next system in route" within the targetting section of the key binds. If you have a multi-leg route then hitting this key will automatically reset your target to the next in the route.
I have been toasted several times lately for no apparent reason, there seems to be no direction of escape and of course the nav package suks when near solar or planetary bodies especially when in normal thruster speeds. When having an encounter near such bodies the nav should provide situational awareness as to the location of such bodies. A six or seven mile scan alone is not enough. Why am I constantly slowing down in deep space for stuff that is not there? No planets, moons, stars, or even vessels that I can see yet I briefly slow dow then speed up again, usually at the worst possible time.
My best suggestion is to get an Advanced Discovery Scanner if you can fit into your load out and use as soon as you enter any new system. This will show the positions of all stars and plannets and allow you to see if you get too close to a sun or if your path will be near a plannet and therefore slow you down. If you end up with an emergency stop if you've flow too close to a sun, then turn off any non-essential systems and let your heat drop as low as it will. Then set a target and jump. You will then have to line up with an 'escape vector' to jump, this will be when your compass next to your radar is centered.
Speaking of which I thought I understood the half-way point slow down on the way to a destination.
Your best bet is to map a key to 75% throttle, in the flight throttle section of the controls menu (quite near the top). If you use this when the timer to destination is between 0:07 and 0:10 then you will slow down in time to make the destination.
Someone else has already linked to the newer longer guide. So I won't go over that bit again.
Fly safe commander.
